• SSGC alone paid Rs11.9bn to KMC, TMCs and cantonment boards to lay underground lines
• Nisar Khuhro asks where and how the amount has been spent by towns

KARACHI: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Sindh Assembly on Thursday sought town-wise details of the billions of rupees received by all towns in Karachi on account of road-digging and restoration charges from various utilities.

Officially called road-cutting charges, the amount is the fee that utility agencies like the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), K-Electric and Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) must pay to a town or municipal authority before digging up a public road to lay gas lines, electricity cables or sewerage pipes.

The amount is meant to cover the cost of repairing and re-carpeting the road after the excavation work, but in Karachi the system has come under scrutiny because towns collect billions under this head while roads often remain broken.

The SSGC alone paid Rs11.9bn in advance to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), town municipal corporations and cantonment boards for permission to lay underground lines, but most of the dug-up roads in the metropolis remain in a dilapidated condition, with no repair work having been carried out by the concerned civic bodies.

The committee also directed the local government department to devise a mechanism for monitoring development works carried out by the towns.

The PAC meeting was held in Sindh Assembly’s committee room and was headed by its Chairman Nisar Khuhro. Representatives of the local government department and municipal commissioners of Town Municipal Corporations (TMCs) of various towns, among others, attended the meeting.

The meeting reviewed the audit paras of TMC Jinnah Town.

Mr Khuhro inquired from the officers of Jinnah Town as to how many Notice Inviting Tenders (NITs) were issued and what development works had been carried out in the town.

The town municipal commissioner of Jinnah Town informed the committee that the town had received Rs800 million under this head, out of which NITs worth Rs300 million had been issued for roads and other development works.

Mr Khuhro asked the TMC to provide a list of development schemes executed under the Rs300m NITs.

He directed that details be provided town-wise as to how much amount all towns in Karachi had received from the SSGC and other utilities as res toration fees and where that amount had been spent.

Officers of the local government department told the PAC that various towns in Karachi had received different amounts from SSGC and other institutions under this head at different times. However, the department and town officers failed to provide details to the PAC regarding the amounts received and their utilisation. The PAC has now sought details from all towns in this regard.

Meanwhile, the meeting also revealed that the Jinnah Town administration had purchased manhole covers at Rs5,000 per cover through four quotations of Rs400,000 each, with a total purchase of Rs1.9 million.

The PAC chairman inquired how many manhole covers were purchased for Rs1.9 million and where in the town they had been installed.

The municipal commissioner of Jinnah Town said that manhole covers had been installed in UC-5, UC-7 and UC-8 of Jinnah Town. The PAC chairman observed that if towns in Karachi were purchasing manhole covers worth millions of rupees and installing them on drains, then why were incidents of open manholes and children falling into them still being reported.

The PAC also sought details from the towns regarding manhole covers.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2026